After the plan was approved by a 3-0 vote, planning commission member Richard Button declared: “I think this is really neat! This is gorgeous!”

An artist’s rendering makes it obvious that adding two more floors will create a structure that is more imposing and less squat.

Judy Woosnam, vice president of operations for City Center, explained the building will be taller because of the amount of interest it is generating from potential commercial tenants. She said the company already is in negotiations with tenants.

Voting with Button to approve the project were Anthony Toth and Frank Facchiano.

Planning commission members Oldrich Foucek and Christian Brown abstained because they have business dealings with the developer.

James Gentile, construction manager, predicted construction of Three City Center will begin sometime during the first three months of 2014 and take up to one year to complete.

Its address will be 513 W. Hamilton, next to the Old Lehigh County Courthouse.

“This is a neo-classical, beaux-art design,” said Gentile, who is president of Allentown-based North Star Construction Management, Inc.

Stressing its symmetry and balance, he said it is architecturally similar to the old courthouse and even the movie theater that was torn down years ago.

The proposed building’s “mass and scale are similar to other buildings” in that area of the city, Alan Salinger, the city’s chief planner, told the planning commission. He added its scale “does not copy nor detract from the existing adjoining structures.”

While the upper six levels of Three City Center will be leased office space, the front of the building’s first level will be retail space.

It will have either two or four tenants, possibly including a restaurant.

The design of the rear of the building, which will overlook Allentown’s Arts Park, intentionally will be nearly identical to the front facing Hamilton Street.

“Our goal is to have this feel like it’s part of the Arts Park,” said Gentile.

One difference will be an open porch on the second level will overlook the Arts Park.

That porch will be used by the building’s tenants, but will not be open to the public.

Outdoor balconies with gardens are planned on each corner on the roof of the building’s sixth floor.

The rear of the first floor will be the upper level of a two-level parking garage. The upper level will be accessed from Law Street, an alley that will run along the side of the building, while the lower level will be accessed from Court Street behind the building.

Three City Center was approved by the Allentown Zoning Hearing Board on Nov. 4.

The project won the approval of the Allentown Commercial and Industrial Authority on July 23.

Another Center City Investment Corp. project, a $1-million renovation of a building at 732 Hamilton, also won 3-0 approval from the planning commission Thursday.

The property formerly was the House of Chen restaurant and probably will reopen as a new restaurant after the work is completed, according to Woosnam and Gentile.